Matthew A. Sutton

Evangelical vs. Liberal

A few years ago I moved to the inland Pacific Northwest to take a position at Washington State University in Pullman. The university is located in a rich agricultural region known as the Palouse, which it shares with the nearby town of Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho. It did not take long for me to realize that something curious was happening in the area. New friends and colleagues warned me that the fancy French restaurant in downtown Moscow was run by members of a powerful "fundamentalist" sect. I was also admonished to avoid a particular coffee shop, also run by these religious fanatics. I was even more surprised to learn that the coffee shop housed a cigar lounge. A "fundamentalist" cigar lounge? (It has since been shut down by the passage of an anti-smoking ordinance).

My interest was piqued. Who were these dangerous fundamentalists who smoked cigars, indulged in French cuisine, and who were apparently determined to take over downtown Moscow? They were members of a local church affiliated with the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a small movement steeped in the classical reformed tradition. Like most evangelicals across the nation, they have taken stands against gay marriage and against female ordination. But unlike many other conservatives, they place significant emphasis on cultivating the life of the mind and on rigorous intellectual debate. To that end they have established a small college, also located (of course) on prime real-estate at the center of downtown Moscow.

A clash of Christian cultures has been brewing ever since. Liberal Protestants and their allies are facing off against the aggressive, entrepreneurial, community-oriented conservatives in the area. What is surprising is that in this tie-dye drenched, hippie-loving university town, best known for its thriving farmers market, co-op grocery store, and natural beauty, the conservatives are winning. And apparently Moscow is not an exception in the Pacific Northwest.

James Wellman's fascinating Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest compares and contrasts evangelical and liberal Protestant (or mainline) churches along the Washington and Oregon coasts. Wellamn's study was driven in part by his interest in religion in the Pacific Northwest, a region that boasts the lowest per-capita church affiliation in the nation, with 63 percent of the population not affiliating with any religious institution. Furthermore, this is a region that is predominately urban, very educated, maintains a median income level above the national average, and has in recent years voted overwhelmingly Democratic. Overall, Wellman describes the region as "best delineated by a pragmatic approach that generally distrusts government, lionizes the entrepreneur, nurtures a libertarian and individualistic set of values, and seeks the preservation of the region's resources and beauty." All of these factors, Wellman believes, should guarantee the success of liberal Protestant churches. But they have not.

As Wellman set out to write this book, he planned to identify and compare successful liberal churches with successful evangelical churches. That proved to be difficult. Wellman identified and studied 24 "of the fastest growing evangelical churches in western Washington and western Oregon that had shown substantial growth in numbers and finances between 2000 and 2005." He compared these with ten "vital" liberal churches—these were churches that had simply maintained their membership and financial status over the previous few years (although by the end of the study they hadn't even done that). Only two of the liberal churches had grown, three had plateaued, and five had marginally declined, even as evangelical growth continued unabated. By every measure of "success," then, evangelicals far outpaced liberals. So, rather than providing liberals around the country with a positive model of growth from the Pacific Northwest, Wellman ended up adding another chapter to the familiar chronicle of liberal Christianity's continuing crisis. Furthermore, by focusing specifically on the Pacific Northwest, he actually demonstrated that the future of liberal Protestantism is even dicier than we have realized. In a region where liberal churches should be thriving, they are dying, and where evangelicals should be relegated to the margins, they are taking center stage. Much like what is happening on the Palouse.

Wellman places the different "moral worldviews" of evangelicals and liberals at the heart of his narrative. Evangelicals put a personal relationship with Jesus is at the center of their faith, while at the core of the liberal worldview is not so much the person of Jesus but the principles he embodies. In terms of values, evangelicals tended to be individually focused, emphasizing "honesty, integrity, service, traditional sexual morality, devotion to family, and hard work." Liberals, on the other hand, valued independent thinking and inclusiveness.

I applaud the research and open minded assessment given by the author. As a Seattle resident and staunch evangelical christian I am always amused and disturbed by the left's exclusionary attitude here if you disagree with them, all the while shouting from the rooftops and holding parades in our streets about "acceptance" "celebrate diversity!" However, God help you if you reject ANY of their liberal ideology. It is good to know with certainty though, that the evangelical christian community is right. :)

Darrell

February 15, 201112:19pm

Great review. I look forward to purchasing the book and reading it. I am a native of the northwest, close to Seattle. I can attest to the fact that the mainliners are declining. The church I attend is fairly large, about 1200 attendees, and I am always amazed at all the people who attend there who are from mainline churches. The main reason they always give is that the mainline churches don't adhere to orthodoxy. Most were raised in the mainline churches so it was a very difficult decision to switch to an evangelical church. But all have said they were glad they changed and would never go back. It is true that the outdoors are a very big distraction here in the northwest. There is so much to do, from skiing, hunting, fishing to hiking, rock climbing and boating. And yes, even though the state votes predominantly democratic, there is a very strong libertarian bent as well. The voters continually vote down tax increases and put limits on the government through the initiative process.

Clark L. Coleman

February 15, 201110:50am

The liberal mainline denominations are driven by modern left/liberal political convictions, and are convinced that Jesus would be a modern political liberal were he incarnated in America today. With political liberalism as their substitute religion, everyone who disagrees with their politics is their de facto religious enemy. Hence, the reviewer stated that mainline liberals view evangelicals as the enemy, while evangelicals do not view mainline denominations as the enemy. Rather, evangelicals view the secular/liberal culture as the enemy. But the mainline denominations identify with the secular/liberal culture! So, anyone who contests the modern/postmodern/secular/liberal trends of society is contesting their religion, and is the enemy. This pattern is seen throughout liberal politics and liberal religion. The liberals (political and religious) profess love and tolerance, but have a visceral hatred for all who disagree with liberal premises.

michael

February 12, 201111:29am

Is the Pacific Northwest the most secular region in the country? The recent Baylor University study has debunked the notion that the percentage of people responding as not affiliating with any denomination equates with a rise in secularism. In fact the rise of evangelical non-denominational churches causes people in those churches to respond to the regular old survey question in a way different from previous generations. This is a growing trend.

Patrick

February 11, 20112:14pm

"Des Moines Deacon" -- no. no it doesn't appear that way at all. First, the review (and presumably the book) hardly speaks to depth of faith -- it speaks to numbers (attendance + financials). Second, it seems to me the reviewer points out the cigars and French cuisine because it struck him as odd, not because they are marks of faith.
(though, the "sacrament of the Northwest" comment re: coffee speaks to a ridiculous trend in evangelical churches. Y'know, drugs are bad, unless it's caffeine... enhance your worship experience with the power of the bean!)
The more interesting (and harder-to-glean) number is how the shifting works. Increase in evangelical churches, decrease in mainline churches -- is this a direct shift? Is this people moving newly to the region that are evangelical? Is any of the joining or leaving churches a mere matter of movement within Christianity, or are "outsiders" coming in / defecting to secularism?
And finally, the most important question: does any of this "evangelical vs mainline" stuff matter when the Pacific Northwest is largely secularized? Per Wellman's report, it seems the evangelicals (of whom Wellman is not one) see the bigger picture, whereas the mainliners are jealous of the attendance rates, growth, and $$ of the evangelicals.
None of this speaks directly to the Gospel, but is a topic adjacent to it: those who claim to have accepted the message of the Gospel, what are they doing and how do they identify themselves and "the other"?
Good article, thanks for reporting.

Des Moines Deacon

February 11, 20111:35pm

It appears from this review that the depth of one's faith can be determined by one's propensity for tobacco smoking, fine dining and gloating. Which gospel does this appear in?

Christopher Benson

February 11, 201110:20am

Professor Sutton: This was a fascinating look at the Pacific Northwest as a microcosm of why liberal Protestantism is dying and evangelical Protestantism is thriving. It appears that the author of the book, despite his own misgivings about evangelicals, carried out an honest study of the churches even when it disproved his original hypothesis. By the end of this article I felt glad to be counted among those evangelicals who "serve good coffee and know how to make really tasty French food."